Looking Toward Tomorrow

 

Looking Toward Tomorrow

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Soon I begin another year.

I look forward to 2024. But it is my hope that I will change more than the calendar that hangs on the bedroom wall. Each of us has our own opinion of the year just completed. Many are pleased to see 2023 in their wake. But when I look back, I see more than the disappointments and difficulties I have faced; I see the accomplishments and great times as well. I have grown these past twelve months. I have had the opportunity to meet many amazing people in 2023. Each year is made up of plus and minuses and this year is no exception.

For God had given me 365 days, and I was obligated to do what I could with that gift. I have tried to move forward in my own way. Though my age limits some the things I once did easily, I live by a very different schedule than years gone by. That new schedule allows me to work on new and different projects, and I do.

These new projects help me to remain optimistic in a world that only emphasizes the negative. Not that optimism comes easy. Not that optimism is my natural reaction. But because I know God is in charge. I know His fingers are in not only my life but the world in general. This knowledge makes my optimism possible, even when much negativity is tossed my way. For as I said, I have been given an incredible gift, my life, and to focus on what cannot be while ignoring what can, does not pay the Giver the complement He deserves.

God does not promise me that I will see the end of 2024, so I focus on the chances and opportunities each day gives. The hours should not to be mired in the muck of what ifs, but rather grasped firmly as I work on the tasks presented, and use what strength remains. For though I am no longer in my youth, there is yet some strength in this man, and I must use that strength to move forward each day.

So as I approach this new year, let me look toward the future, with eyes wide open. But always remembering that life gives good times and times that I will feel in the end were not so good. It is for me to face each new day with confidence, for there are things God wishes me to do...

And God has plans for you as well!

May God bless 2024...

 (420 Words) 12-30-2023

To Step Lively Toward Tomorrow

 

To Step Lively Toward Tomorrow

By John W. Vander Velden

And so I begin another year.

I look forward to this brand new year, knowing I must change the calendar. But it is my hope that I change more than just a set of pages hung on the wall, replace more than sheets of numbers used on those fresh pages, twelve sheets that represent all the possibilities 2023 will present.

Each of us has our own opinion of the year just completed. Most are pleased to see 2021 in their wake, and though I might agree, for in many ways it was a difficult year, a painful one, I catch my breath and say each year I have lived has had its share of dark days. Yes, 2021 was our second year underneath the heavy wings of COVID-19. Yes, the year contained the loss of those we loved. Yes, there were times we struggled to find things we wanted or needed to purchase. Yes, there were so many things that could have been better. But even as I dwell on those thoughts, I understand things could have been much worse.

For God had given me 365 days, what had been a fresh sheet only a year ago. And among those days were magical experiences as well. There have been sunny days among the overcast. Times of laughter among the tears. I consider all that I have done. I had the opportunity to see things, go places, meet people. Do I ignore those things while wallowing in what could not be or what I wanted but could not have?

To do so would dilute the wonders of my life. It is for me therefore to remain optimistic in a world that only emphasizes the negative. Not that optimism comes easy. Not that optimism is my natural reaction. But because God gives me a new year, and it is an incredible gift, and to focus on what might seem dark while ignoring the light, does not pay the giver the complement He deserves.

So I, like you, have been given a new year, and though God does not promise me that I will see 2023, before me I focus on the chances and opportunities each day gives. The hours not to be mired in the muck of what ifs, rather I will grasp hold as firmly as I am able the tasks presented, and use what strength remains, for though I am no longer in my youth, there is yet strength in this man, and I use that strength to move forward each day.

So on this day, made special by mere mortals, a day I have decided begins a new chapter, let me march forward, with eyes wide open. But always remembering that life gives good times and times that I will feel in the end were not so good. I march forward hopefully having learned lessons from the year and years I have lived. That on those lessons I am able to stand taller and step lively toward tomorrow. For there are things that I need to do...

And so do you!

May God bless 2022...

 

(516 Words) 1-1-2022

A Look Backward

A look Backward     

By John W. Vander Velden

As the year comes to its conclusion, it is perfectly normal to look backward at the year or years behind us. Personally, I take too much time looking in the rearview mirror for my own good, dwelling upon stumbles I’ve made. It’s OK to look back, but I should not dwell there, and overall I don’t.

But as I look forward to the new year ahead, I hope I have learned something from 2018. For the year contained many firsts. Imagine that, this old dog had new experiences. I, like most, faced a few frightening things during the year, and have overcome a couple of threats to my person. To clarify, these dangers came from life in general not from an angry individual. But I have had many wonderful experiences that outweigh the negative many times over.

The thrill of holding the first copy of my book cannot be measured with a ruler. The wonderful people I have met while I promoted Misty Creek will long be remembered. Watching my son graduate from Purdue University will always be a pinnacle of my life, though moving him out of state carries its own melancholy. Life goes on and to the fortunate it brings new things, but it is up to us to reach out and grab the golden ring isn’t it.

We did a bit of traveling in 2018 and saw new places in a way we haven’t before. Life is meant to be lived and there are many ways to live it. Watching our children’s wings grow stronger, even if that means they fly further away. Trying something new like writing a book. Traveling to new places. Facing new challenges and difficulties. All these things are part of the life we have been given. All these things...the good and the bad as well are gifts and should be appreciated.

So a new year stands before me and I have no idea what it will bring. But that’s the magic of it. To be wide open to the 365 days of possibilities. Yes, there will be setbacks. Yes, there will be things I would rather not face, but must. Yes, there will be heartbreak. But there will also be those amazing moments, fantastic sunrises and sets, the huge full moon when it breaks the horizon, there will be friends and laughter, and there will always be love. And that is  the greatest thing of all.

For each day I know I am surrounded by love. Love from people I know, friends and family. Love from my faraway son. Love from my beloved, Jackie, who makes my life livable, and love from God that makes my life possible.

So take a look backward...but don’t dwell in the past. Look forward...but don’t get lost in what might be...it is the now that matters and the love that surrounds.

12/25/2018 (479 Words)

Looking Forward

Looking Forward

By John W. Vander Velden

It’s early January and it seems a time when we wonder about the year in our wake.  First we are astonishment how the days have flown passed, and deposited us here in another year.  As we look back, we question our actions, wondering if we did our best last year.  There are times that stand out in our memory.  Happy moments and disappointing ones as well.

The calendar has rolled over and it is fitting that we examine these things.  How else can we hope not to fall into the same pitfalls that ripped us up last year…or the years before?  Those lessons were hard learned, but in learning…well, we grow. 

But we must not dwell only on the dark days, feeling that they foretell a bleakness before us.  No!  Now is the time for optimism.  A time to see that, overall, sunny days are ahead.  Yes, they may be blended with overcast days of rain or snow, but we need to look forward to the sunshine.  Cherish the special hours and days, and use them to fuel us when things are harder.

Winnie the Poo’s friend Eeyore stood in his “gloomy spot” swallowed by a darkness he carried with him, and we loved him for it.  But it would be an unpleasant life if we all shared his view.

So looking forward, I see possibilities.  I expect failures, but remain steadfast that those failures are but stepping stones that lead to successes.  I try to be optimistic.  It is not an easy thing, for it seems simpler to brace ourselves for lesser circumstances.  But optimism gives me hope, and hope gives me energy, and energy will be needed every day, as I march onward.  So I look forward and cast the blankets aside I might wish to hide beneath, stepping out into another day…another year.  I hope you will look forward too….   

(316 Words)  1-3-2018

Oliebolle

Oliebolle

                                   

By John W. Vander Velden

 

When you move from one place to another, what you bring will surprised you.

 

My parents came to this country from the Netherlands in 1948.  Fortunately they did not come alone, for my father’s oldest sister and her family settled in northern Indiana a few months before my parent’s arrival.  Times in Holland were difficult so shortly after the war.  As newlyweds at twenty-three, they had little and leaving a county in reconstruction were allowed to take less.  Yet the Vander Veldens came with that optimism that so many had, when reaching this “land of opportunity”.

Though their suitcases lacked the material things, they carried memories of family and customs for the remainder of their lives.  With time, they became citizens and blended into this land, that had once been new to them, yet they retained much of the “echt Hollands” (real Dutch) in their home.

Perhaps New Year’s would be the best example.  The holiday was to be celebrated in the home of the oldest member of the family – within a reasonable distance.  Growing up we always went to Tante Agagt and Oom Cass after milking on New Year’s Eve.  The adults, a large group, played a game they brought from the “old country”, “Clock and Hammer”, until the wee hours of the New Year, while the young played Monopoly in the kitchen.  But the whole event would be for naught if it were not for oliebolle, a deep fried Dutch treat.  I loved my aunt, but she couldn’t make oliebolle like my mom.  Tante’s were OK, but mom’s….

Over the years things changed.  My Aunt and Uncle moved to a farm further away.  We continued to visit them on New Year’s Day though it was no longer reasonable to go after milking on the Eve.  As the family grew older and larger, we assembled at the Vander Velden farm house to wait out one year and welcome in the next. 

Mom would work all afternoon, making a raisin bread dough, filling large pans covering them with dish towels, warming the rising dough until the pots nearly overflowed, then dropping large spoonfuls of the sticky concoction into the hot bubbling oil.  She removed the olliebole, when the bobbing balls of raisin bread became golden brown.

At the end of the day’s work, we would enter the house, to an aroma that I am unable to describe but will be part of my memory all my days.  And everyone knew that something special awaited. 

Yes, over time many thing changed.  The family now “blown apart” by distance, no longer gather to celebrate the New Year’s beginning, though a few of the descendants of Jacob and Nel Vander Velden or their spouses continue to make oliebolle.  Yet the memory of that delightful treat reminds me of the place from which I have come -- and the life my parents left behind.

(480 Words)